Wednesday, January 21, 2009

I have not read any of the graphic novels in the Fable series, but since Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall was listed as a prequel to that collection, I thought I would take a chance of being able to follow along. In the introduction by the author, Bill Willingham, explains that Fables is a modern day account of those fairytale characters we grew up with like Snow White, Prince Charming, the Big Bad Wolf and so on. These immortals have been chased out of their magical realm by an evil warlord known as The Adversary and forced to live in our world in a secret underground colony known as Fabletown, bidding their time until they are strong enough to over throw The Adversary and reclaim their homelands.

Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall takes place before the Fable series began. Snow White travels to Arabia as an ambassador from the exiled Fables community to seek an alliance with the sultan against The Adversary, but instead of his guest she ends up his prisoner. With her execution looming, Snow attempts to charm her captor with not-so-familiar stories of the familiar Fable characters. This is no Disney folks; these captivating tales definitely put the grim in fairytale. If you like happily ever after this book is probably not for you. But if you like intriguing story-telling reminiscent to that of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman entwined with intense imagery, then I highly recommend it.